Discussion: Danelle Ballengee training accident

This news story is a few days old, but it really hit home. Danelle Ballengee is one of the world's top adventure racers, with considerable experience training and travelling alone in the backcountry. That's probably the reason she is still alive. One of my New Year's resolutions will be to let someone know where I'm going when I'm training alone. And I will be sure to take a dog or two along whenever I can!

This website provides a great service: www.safetrip.ca. You input a few details re your trip and the website triggers a response if you aren't back when you say you are going to be.

Wow, that is great. Thanks!

Danelle is an RMOC member, and ran at the 1000-Days this past summer in Wyoming. I spotted her up ahead of me at one point, but couldn't move fast enough to catch her. Or her dog Taz.

Oh yeah, I remember her now... merci JJ.
I would be a little careful with that Safetrip website. I looked into ita while ago, and to me, it's the perfect way to invite a group of badly intentioned people to your open house...

I can't believe a Canadian is so paranoid.

Don't you all go out, leaving your front doors unlocked anyway, just as Michael Moore claimed in Bowling for Columbine?"

In any case, according to the SafeTrip website:

...Your private information is kept in strict confidence until required by search professionals....

Good one Clark! You are correct though, we don't lock our doors, especially here at Silver Star! Although I do lock my doors at night now because a few years ago my roomates and I woke up to the neighbour sound asleep on our couch - his wife had locked him out 'cause he was drunk!! But that's a whole different story...

I would like to believe that their database is super safe, but if hackers can get into banks and high security databases, why not into that one? Call me paranoid, eh, but something tells me it can't be trusted, even if the intention is good.

I didn't quite understand the part of the story about the dog Taz. He "showed up" when the rescuers arrived? Had she been running with him?

Danelle & her female partner did really well at this year's Big Muddy rogaine.

Ah - yes, Taz was with her - more amazing detail here.

Barb, it asks for reader registration on that link. Can yu summarize the dog details for us? I was perplexed by Taz's "appearance" too.

Boris:
Devon O'Neil has crafted an excellent piece about the event, and IMHO well worth the required registration. This is the promised expanded version which was published by the Summit Daily News on Friday.

The story about the dog is interwoven into the entire, long article, so it's tough to summarize. But here is an excerpt that might give you the flavor of the article:

...That’s when Marshall and the rest of the search party see Taz. In a seemingly conscious effort, the dog eludes their attempts to capture him for just long enough that the humans catch on: This must be Ballengee’s dog. He’s our best clue right now. Let him run.

Initially, Taz leads them away from the trailhead, back toward town. Weird, the rescuers think. But they follow. And Taz sees them. Shortly thereafter he turns around, “like once he knew he had attracted enough attention, it was time to go back into the canyon,” rescue group member Rex Tanner says. The dog darts through the assembled search party and out toward the canyons. Marshall radios ahead to his two Rangers: “Whatever you do, don’t try to catch the dog. Follow it.”....

Yes, that's the most amazing excerpt of the dog details. Danelle was out for 52 hours, starting around mid-day. On the first night, Taz (golden retriever/German Shepherd cross) cuddled with her and kept her warm. She spent many hours yelling for help the next day, and the dog wouldn't lie down with her after that. He kept disappearing for short periods of time and returning, and she now thinks he was coming up with a plan. (Although I've read that dogs' brains are incapable of making plans, I can vouch for the fact that our dogs do.) Ultimately, Taz returned to the trailhead 8 km away, where he met up with rescuers and refused to be touched by them. The story continues above. Pretty amazing.

I'd like to believe that our Labs could do that for me in an emergency, but I suspect that they wouldn't leave me, especially in an unfamiliar area. Danelle hadn't done this run in a year, her route didn't follow trails the whole way, and there were junctions to make decisions at. I'm blown away by what Taz was able to do.

My favourite quote in the article is from another world class multisport athlete: "To be a good adventure racer, you basically have to be hard to kill."

I met Danelle and her team at the Balance Bar AR a few years ago. They were extremely organized and smart how they prepared (and won) the race. I believe this kind of thoroughness is what kept Danelle alive. She know what to do, to keep moving her foot, to keep her body temperature up with upper body movement, not to drink too much but always some very small amount.

This is not only a story of a mishap, it is also amazing how she (and her dog) did the right thing once things had gone wrong. Plus her neighbors and the rescue teams who acted when it was needed.

Here's a re-print of the Summit Daily article that does NOT require a login: http://planetultramarathon.wordpress.com/2006/12/2...

Also, here's a video / interview from the Today show on 12/22/2006, "Woman Reunites With Dog": http://video.msn.com/v/us/v.htm?g=4c2d40fa-cec1-45... (this covers pretty much the same material as the Summit Daily article).

Under the circumstances, I suppose Taz can be forgiven for peeing on some of the maps at the start of the 1000-Day Night-O last year. ;-)

Although I've read that dogs' brains are incapable of making plans, I can vouch for the fact that our dogs do.

My understanding is that dogs can't make and execute plans as a group. That is, they have no way of communicating and agreeing upon multiple steps. Dolphins, Chimps, and Humans can do that. The jury is out on Gorillas and several other primates.

Many species are capable of coming up with multi-step solutions for their own actions, which is basically making a plan.

The above is my understanding from casual reading of lay journals plus a few footnotes in scholarly AI articles, so any animal behavior folks should feel free to correct me.

Neet artical, good thing she had here dog with her. Even I take my dog with me while trail running, she makes me feel much safer and she is also a great companion. I love my dog. :)

I think you're right, Eric. As a new dog owner, I read that an individual dog can't make and execute plans, but I've seen that it's clearly untrue. As you point out, our two dogs don't make plans together, unless you count agreement on such things as "it's time to pull on opposite ends of this rope" or "let's bark loudly at 3 a.m., because it will scare the crap out of Bash while 'Bent is out of town".

This story raises a question for course setters. How many of you survey the terrain alone as opposed to in pairs...?

I map alone. I set courses alone. I go out for runs alone, occasionally in remote, arguably hazardous places. And I don't usually bring a cell phone. No plans to change any of that.

I'm mostly the same way, though I have started to let people know where I am going (I think that's the most important part) and do take a cell phone for longer trips into remote places.

..."and do take a cell phone for longer trips into remote places."
Yeah and I sure hope you have added a shovel now to that!

I was thinking about this topic last fall when I was setting at Telemark in WI alone in a thunderstorm. I actually left one of the ridges--and the trail--when the storm seemed fairly close. I wondered If I had left any clue as to where I might be in the area, if something actually happened. The answer was not much, just my car parked at the trailhead. And I might have left a master map of the courses at the house somewhere.

I always take a cell phone, but it doesn't work everywhere, and it's useless if I happen to be unconscious. I'm going to be more diligent about leaving notes or sending e-mails to 'Bent before I go out alone. For longer trips, we always send the info to our parents. It doesn't mean much to them, but if we didn't show up, they could give it to a search team. However, we often do random explorations after setting up at a backcountry campsite, so we could still be pretty hard to find.

I always leave my cell phone in the car, so it can't find me, but it could help find the car/trailhead - I rarely mention where I'm going, which varies. I recently signed up for Sprint Family Locator for the primary purpose of finding my phone if I lose it (e.g. at a restaurant, on the shoulder of a freeway...), but I figured that's also useful if I get stuck somewhere - Angelica could find the car quickly. (Assuming she remembers how to use the service.)

Good point, Wyatt. I should have mentioned that my cell phone is most definitely turned off when I take it into the woods!

Danelle and Taz's story made this week's Sports Illustrated (Jeff Garcia cover)